As the lively music thudded lowly through the speakers, Quinn took a moment to survey the room around her. The dance floor was packed tightly with warm bodies grinding and swaying to the beat- girls in flowy dresses and boys in slick suits, both with fragrant cut flowers adorning their attire. On the outskirts of the spacious room, clusters of McKinley High students took pictures to commemorate the night, guzzled down the meager provided refreshments, or else sat at one of the lamely decorated tables, periodically checking their phone clocks and waiting for the much awaited moment when they could finally go home. As the decidedly terrible and overpriced dj faded the current pop hit into a slow country number, Quinn made her exit, and slipped her way through the crowd, past the faculty chaperones and into the dimly lit hallway that led to the rest of the building.

She had come to McKinley's sophomore prom with Finn – a consolation date since he and Rachel were broken up for the time being. No surprise in their on-again-off-again relationship. And even if it was a little bit of a confidence hit being someone's second choice, she still readily agreed when Finn asked her. Better to be a second rate date than have none at all, she thought. Regardless, though, she was in no mood to dance with him, and she knew that he'd likely be spending his time following Rachel around the dance floor very unsubtly anyway. She wasn't actually sure who Berry had come with, she mused as she turned a corner, only to be greeted by a couple wedged into a corner making out like their lives depended on it. Slightly disgusted and without taking a second to really notice who the couple was, Quinn pushed open the heavy door to the restroom and stepped inside. Gaining a moment alone, finally, she spent a moment surveying herself in the expansive mirror mounted on the wall above the shining steel sinks. Her strapless dress showed off her collar bones nicely, she thought, and the white satin wrapped fashionably around her slender frame before falling into gentle pulls leading down toward the hem. Why she had chosen a short dress for a prom, she wasn't sure. But, as she smoothed out the wide pink ribbon tied around her waist and into a bow near her hip, she felt sure she had made an excellent choice. After all, she wasn't the only one wearing a short dress, and besides, she looked damn good and she knew it.

With one last tousle to her gently curled golden hair, Quinn turned to walk back to the party, confident that by now a fast song would be on and she wouldn't have to deal with a moping and distracted Finn. Just as she was about to pull open the door, a ridiculously bubbly Rachel Berry burst in.

"Why hello there, Quinn! How are you this fine evening? I presume you are having a lovely time, as while the decorations are only very loosely themed and for some reason the dj continues to ignore my requests for the occasional classic broadway hit, I do still find this prom overall splendid."

Without stopping for any sort of response, Rachel breezed past Quinn and spent only a few seconds touching up her lip gloss and ruffling her hair before turning to leave and go back to the dance. Rachel pulled the door open halfway before she stopped and turned, dark eyes running up and down Quinn before she smiled slightly and said,

"You look ravishing, by the way."

Quinn barely had a moment to process before Rachel blew out of the bathroom into the hallway, the golden ruffles of her dress fluttering with the momentum, leaving a briefly stunned Quinn in her wake. Flattered and confused but with a smile on her face, Quinn, too, began to make her way back to the party, the music now booming loudly once again. Santana, in a lithe black dress, passed her in the hall, Brittany trailing behind in canary yellow.

"God, Fabray, who shoved sunshine up your ass? The dumbass grin on your face is ridiculous, get rid of it." Santana threw over her shoulder. Brittany just smiled and waggled her fingers in a wave as she took Santana's hand and the pair continued down the hallway, likely off to find a dark corner somewhere to defile. Quinn shook her head, trying to shake the smile off her face and wondering why a simple compliment from Berry of all people would have her grinning. It's not as though they were close or anything. But they were no longer at each other's throats. Ever since Glee club had supported Quinn through her pregnancy earlier that year, she couldn't keep being hostile toward them. And while she was only really friends with Santana, Brittany and, to some extent, Mercedes, she now got along at least amicably with all the rest. Even Rachel. Though their particular relationship was complicated at best, they weren't vicious towards each other anymore, and that at least was something. Well, Quinn wasn't vicious anymore. Rachel had always been unfailingly kind and forgiving toward the blonde. Now that she wasn't as busy hating the world and everyone in it, Quinn found herself appreciating those qualities of Rachel's more and more, even if she could still often be an overbearing diva at times. Regardless, though, they were never really close, and Rachel saying something nice to her shouldn't get her this worked up. She really shouldn't care much at all.

As Quinn neared the doors to the prom, she pushed the thoughts to the back of her mind and worked her way back into the huddle of dancing high schoolers. After a few minutes of dancing and sweating and grinding up against other people, intentional or not, the music changed. And with the change in music, along came one Rachel Berry.

You're so hypnotizing

Could you be the devil? Could you be an angel?

Whether it was the surprisingly effective compliment or the simple fact that Rachel really did look amazing that night, or perhaps some other pull, Quinn was strangely drawn to her, and danced her way closer to the brunette as the song progressed.

You're from a whole other world; a different dimension

You open my eyes, and I'm ready to go- lead me into the light

Kiss me, k-k-kiss me

As Rachel and Quinn's sides ground against each other and skin touched skin, Quinn felt her body heat up and her thoughts get a little fuzzy. Possibly from Puck's yearly spiked punch, probably from something else. Somehow she found her eyes always tracking back to Rachel's face- studying her profile, her lips, her eyes.

Your touch so foreign

It's supernatural; extraterrestrial

As the last notes of the song came through the speakers, Rachel drifted away through the crowd, and as she did, Quinn's thoughts came to a very narrow point. She recognized the way she felt then as the next song started- hot, scatter-brained, and a little bit overstimulated. This was the way she always felt after interactions with Rachel Berry, but also the way she felt when she was around someone she was into. It was something a little sexual and something with a little bit of chemistry all wrapped up in a layer of frustration. Up until these moments, eyes raking over the brunette's face and hip grinding not unpleasantly against the other girl's, she had never made the connection. Previously she had always thought Berry made her feel that way out of annoyance and frustration and anger. But could it really be that the truth of the matter was that somehow, some way, Quinn was finding Treasure Trail Berry to be a major turn-on? Alcohol in her system be damned, something was up, and it wasn't something she wanted to be up.

Shit.

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